Corn Commentary

Good News is Good News

There seems to be a slow down in negative news about ethanol lately. Since I subscribe to Google news alerts for ethanol, I get regular updates on news stories about it, and I would say that up until just recently they were either more negative than positive, or at least evenly split. So far this year, they have been overwhelmingly good news.

I have no great insight as to why this might be, but it’s certainly a nice change of pace. Here is a sampling of recent stories:

Study: Prairie Grass Can Produce Ethanol - The Associated Press and more than 160 other articles on the same topic.
This story has grown legs and been running all over the place. The five-year study of switch grass done by the University of Nebraska and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service was published this week by the National Academy of Sciences.

Ohio Gets First Ethanol Plant - Houston Chronicle, United States, picked up by AP and several other versions on-line.
Expect to see more on this one in the next day or so as the event only just happened today. Some 3,000 people turned out in the little town of Leipsic, Ohio for the new plant’s grand opening. This article from the local Putnam County Sentinel says even organizers were surprised at the turnout. The plant is Ohio’s first and the 22nd for ethanol giant POET.

On the international front, how about this one from Australia?
Ethanol plant ‘would be good for dairy industry’ - ABC Online, Australia
Here the Australian Dairy Farmers says a New South Wales Government’s approval of a $100 million project for an ethanol plant and dairy would be good for the dairy industry because it will use the ethanol by-product to feed 18,000 dairy cattle, and “produce 77 million litres of milk annually.”

Good NewsThis is all good news for the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council which has started a new e-newsletter to spread the good press that ethanol is getting.

The “Ethanol Good News Network” communication is a biweekly communication published Monday and Friday afternoons. EPIC members are automatically subscribed.